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Xi's call on arms sales not expected to affect Taiwan-U.S. ties

ROC Central News Agency

2013/06/09 18:16:31

Taipei, June 9 (CNA) Chinese President Xi Jinping's call for the United States to end arm sales to Taiwan is not expected to affect Taiwan-U.S. relations, local scholars said Sunday.

Xi's comments during the meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama had 'more rhetoric than substance' and were even contradictory, said Chen I-hsin, a professor in Tamkang University's Graduate Institute of the Americas.

Xi asked Obama at the two-day meeting in California to maintain the U.S.'s 'one-China' principle based on the three communiques that the U.S signed with China in 1972, 1979 and 1982.

But China's increasing deployment of missiles targeted at Taiwan contradicts the communiques, which call for 'a peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question' and the two sides to 'reduce the danger of international military conflict,' Chen said.

Xi on one hand demanded that the U.S. stop arms sales to Taiwan, but China continues to increase its military superiority over Taiwan on the other with the ambition of taking over the island, Chen said.

The professor suggested that the Chinese leader's remarks were so full of contradictions that they could even affect China-U.S. relations.

Yen Chen-shen, a research fellow at National Chengchi University's Institute of International Relations, said the U.S. and China are not expected to find common ground on the Taiwan issue, because Washington is more concerned about whether Beijing will become a problem in issues related to Japan and North Korea.

Yen said Xi attempted to put China's national power on an equal footing with that of the U.S. by taking an aggressive stance in addressing China's sovereignty issues.

He also urged Taiwanese authorities to watch closely if China will persuade the U.S., whether publicly or privately, into pushing Taiwan into talks with Beijing on political issues.

(By Hsieh Chia-chen and Jamie Wang)
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